In, and around the home, a construction site, and/or various other locations, various mixtures are combined to generate a preferred compound mixture. A number of different household items require the measure of a first compound (either a liquid or solid) to be added to at least a second compound (another solid or liquid) thereby creating a preferred compound mixture. Currently, home, as well as construction type measuring devices is universally scaled in standard volumetric units (such as ounces, cups, liters, gallons, etc) for use with any material compound that is to be measured. Present measuring devices are not adapted to measure commercially available batched manufactured proportions since these quantities are generally too large for current measuring containers thereby creating excessive amount of waste product.
For example, where a novice builder would like to build a deck made of concrete, the novice builder would have to attempt to “guestimate” how many bags of concrete would be necessary, as well as the other requisite mixing components necessary in making the concrete deck. Since concrete is sold in batched quantities of a predetermined amount, this predetermined amount becomes another complicated variable to the novice builder as he attempts to calculate the amount of the various components he would need to complete the deck. Unfortunately, what happens, more often than not, is that the quantity of the various required components for the finished compound concrete mixture is very difficult to determine. Invariably, the amount secured by the novice builder is often too complicated to determine and of an unknown quantity. Consequently, the finished quantity purchased by the novice builder may be too small a quantity thereby creating the cumbersome task of having to re-mix additional compound. On the other hand, the inadequate estimate by the novice builder yields a resultant quantity that is too large thereby creating excessive and unnecessary waste.
Every household typically has more than one measuring device for instances where at least two compounds have to be mixed to generate a particular product. The problem is that as the number of compounds is mixed, so too is the inaccuracy with which the various products are measured and mixed. That is, one compound may be measured by a first graduated scale of a first measuring device to measure the first volume of either a liquid or solid, and combined with another measured or non-measured volume for a second compound from a second graduated scale of a second measuring device. The various measuring devices increases the inaccuracy of the various compounds mixed together. The iterative process of measuring the various components many times over increases the inaccuracy of the inconsistent mixture, which may inevitably result in the compound becoming too thin or too thick. Unfortunately, the intended mixture and consistency throughout the combined product is replete with inconsistencies and materially affects the function and integrity of the desired product.
Likewise, another problem with most household measuring devices is the size of the measuring device. Since the smaller measuring devices are adapted to measure smaller quantities with greater accuracy and larger devices are adapted to measure larger quantities. The precise accuracy of utilizing the larger measuring devices suffers when a user attempts to measure a smaller increment with the larger measuring device. And vice-versa, miscalculating the proper mixture as a consequence of utilizing a smaller measuring device for an intended large quantity, results in the user having to repeatedly measure volumes numerous times with the small measuring device which ultimately affects the inaccurate final measured compound. Regrettably, a user will try and compensate by purchasing multiple unnecessary measuring tools which ultimately become lost and/or misplaced.
In an attempt to resolve some of these concerns, large measuring devices have been designed and proposed for use unsuccessfully. At least one disadvantage of many of these larger measuring devices is that they are heavy and not designed in such a way for ease of lifting and pouring. To carefully mix proper portions of the various mixing compounds, one must be able to lift large loads in the measuring device with one hand while controlling the dispensing action easily with the other hand for a controlled safe pour into the combined compound. The large gaping mouth of a top edge of the large measuring device typically does not come with a pour spout such that the measured product cannot easily flow out of the large container.
Furthermore, all outdoor consumer mixing materials, such as for example, but not limited to: mortar, concrete, thin set grout, joint compound, chlorine for swimming pools, grass seed and fertilizer, are sold in a variety of different standard size bags and containers. Conveniently, these containers or bags are set to a specific industry standard batch quantity size for each specific material. Consequently, as a first raw material is mixed with a second compound (such as water, or grass seed and fertilizer—which is broadcast onto a yard in an easily reproducible consistent manner), there is no reliable, easy, way to recreate the same proportion of compound mixture consistently every time, or broadcast the correct amount of seed or fertilizer based on the yard size, and not necessarily the prepackaged batched size. Undesirably, an incorrect mixture (such as one less than the recommended mixture in the prepackaged batched bag) of the compound can waste raw material or create a hazard due to the instability of the final mixed product. As a result, over or under seeding or fertilizing a yard can kill a lawn and/or yield an undesired affect.
Many individual consumers who purchase a bag or two of a consumer prepackaged raw material have little experience with the products they purchase and how to appropriately mix and administer them over a predetermined area or volume. That is, the consumer is frequently unsure of the correct consistency of the finished product, or how much end product they are going to have once the product is mixed for a predetermined area or volume may not be equal to the predetermined mixture in the batched bag. Consequently, the end product is often incorrectly mixed, and often times mixed to an undesirable incorrect quantity.
Another disadvantage prone to the ill-mixing of raw consumer materials is a result of the standardization of industry container sizes based on various materials. There does not exist a single universal measuring device adapted to measure liquids and/or solids to create a perfect mix of each of the materials in a single universal measuring device.
Despite past and present innovation in measuring buckets, it is clear that this problem has not been solved and there is still a longstanding need for a graduated measuring container adapted to assist a novice user to be able to expertly mix a variety of consumer construction and/or household compound materials in a consistent, self formulating and predictable manner based on various manufactured pre-packaged batched materials.